Morgan Hoffman and the Journey Back to Hilton Head

A couple of months ago a notification popped up on my phone. With the usual annoyance, I
snatched it up to have a look at what I was sure would be the usual drivel; ten percent off this,
free delivery on that. However, the notification was from Apple podcasts, and it was telling me
that a new episode of Golf Digest’s ‘Local Knowledge’ was available.

Prior to this, I had heard little about Morgan Hoffmann. I knew, of course, that he was a PGA
Tour golfer and I had seen his name on leaderboards now and again. Coming from the UK, I
always thought Hoffmann was a ‘surfer dude’ type reminiscent of Rickie Fowler; such are the
stereotypes we impart upon each other from our respective sides of the pond.

I think there was some truth in that, but as ever, stereotypes tend to take away from a person’s inherent talents. Talented is a fitting word for this former world amateur number one. During his time at OklahomaState, Hoffmann earned the Phil Mickelson Award as the nation’s top freshman, as well as two All-America honors. His list of accomplishments is too long to list here, but take my word for it -he was good.

Morgan Hoffmann already had an impressive resume before turning Pro

After playing in the Walker Cup and then the US Open as an amateur, Hoffmann
turned pro in 2010; and thus began a remarkable story of courage, resilience, and some rather
‘out-there’ methods of self-treatment.

Let’s be clear, Hoffmann was no journeyman pro bouncing from tour to tour. He was paying the
bills just fine on the main stage, albeit after a somewhat rocky start which included a broken
wrist sustained in a dirt-bike accident. Upon his recovery, Hoffmann guaranteed his Tour card
fairly quickly with some consistent finishes and took the popular decision to move to Jupiter,
Florida, home to a plethora of golf’s biggest names.

In the podcast, Dan Rapaport speaks to Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger, contemporaries of Hoffmann, who paint a picture of a slightly cool, unique figure, who was quite happy doing whatever quirky thing his heart desired.

For example, Hoffmann is a qualified pilot. Berger described him as ‘a guy’s guy’ in that he was
not wrapped up in golf; far from it. Morgan Hoffmann would always be out and about, flying himself around the area and pursuing adventure.

But there had been one thing on Hoffmann’s mind all this time; actually, since his third year of college when he had noticed something odd about one of his chest muscles. Although he hadn’t worried too much at the time, this shrinking of his pectoral muscle had not gone away; so Hoffmann began seeking professional opinions.

Much to Morgan Hoffmann’s annoyance, doctors seemed generally baffled by the gradual
withering of his chest. It took two years for him to get anywhere with it, during which time he had
some bad experiences with medical experts. One of them, he explained to Rapaport, promised
to have him fully cured in no time; only to never show his face again. When 2016 came around,
Hoffmann finally started making some progress towards a diagnosis – but it wasn’t exactly a
welcome one; far from it. Muscular Dystrophy was first mentioned to him by a neurologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Let’s not give them too much credit, though; Hoffmann had been going to that particular medical establishment for some time, with no luck.

On the podcast, he makes it sound like the doctor had a lightbulb moment after spending two years sifting through a multitude of other ideas; a shot in the dark, if you will. Hoffmann waited six months for the confirmation to arrive, which it finally did; but it came in a way he had not expected – with zero scope for treatment.

The diagnosis of Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy came with no hope, only time; and
not much of that, either. Ten years, then we will attempt to give you some quality of life, they
kindly offered. For a guy in his mid-twenties, making a living as a professional athlete during the
post-dominant-Tiger era, prospects were positively gleaming for Morgan Hoffmann in every other way. He was not prepared to accept this ten-year wait as his only option.

Is it really alternative medicine?

There are many reasons to prudently listen to Dan Rapaport’s podcast, aside from the story
itself. Hoffmann is quietly spoken and devoid of any cavalier, arrogant air; in fact, he is insightful
and shrewd, even when explaining how he regularly ‘picked up chicks’ – an achievement indeed.

His opinion on ‘alternative’ medicine is discerning and sharp to the point that at the end of that
segment, I was deeply questioning my own understanding of the term. What the western world
deems to be ‘alternative’, Morgan Hoffmann suggested, has actually been around for much longer than ‘modern’ medicine, which is what ultimately convinced him to explore that route.

After resorting to that most reckless of pursuits – googling an illness – Hoffmann came to believe
that the entire environment of his life was affecting his health and contributing to the disease he
was now battling. It was meticulous; everything and anything that touched or entered his body
would be monitored, along with the people he associated with and even the grass he walked
upon.

Of the few things he disagreed with the PGA Tour over, pesticides and water were the
stickiest of sticking points. Over time, Hoffmann began to lose his drive to play golf and with that,
his form, coming to the realization that it was time to make a drastic change. So he did the
obvious thing – he traveled to Nepal to spend three months living off the land, completely
disconnected from the world he had become used to. But now he had tapped into that most
human, primal instinct. Survival.

Over the next few years, Hoffmann and his wife Chelsea devoted their lives to finding other
opinions, other techniques, and alternatively qualified people to help them along their journey.
Fortunately for them, they were not constrained by a lack of financial capacity, nor were they
hampered by their own conformity to recognized methods of treatment.

They were clearly willing to try anything if they believed it would help Morgan, therefore the list of treatments they tried is both extensive and curious. Consuming his own urine doesn’t seem to phase Hoffmann, quite the contrary – on the podcast, he positively gushes about it – even recommending the practice to Dan Rapaport.

Hallucinogenic cocktails are also quite acceptable, even the ones that lead to
‘involuntary defecation’ and the appearance of enormous butterflies; it’s quite enthralling to hear
him describe it. I suppose it depends entirely on your point of view, but it seems undeniable that something the Hoffmanns did during the past few years has worked. Maybe it is all mental – if you believe you are healing, maybe you are.

There is a hint of contradiction in all the hippiness and otherworldly methods because Morgan Hoffmann is not a complete recluse living off the land and practicing alternative medicine. At one point, Rapaport asks him whether he would recommend alternative therapy to someone with a broken femur, and Hoffmann says that he wouldn’t. There are business interests too, not to mention a lingering association with professional golf that he clearly has not wanted to completely eschew.

This week, Morgan Hoffmann is playing on the PGA Tour once more, using a medical exemption
he was given in 2018. He has an allegiance to Hilton Head after having gone to high school there,
plus the golf course is relatively manageable in terms of length – for him, anyway. His return to
golf has garnered a lot of attention in the media following Dan Rapaport’s podcast, and it will
certainly be interesting to follow his progress in the RBC Heritage tournament.

I wonder what he is expecting from the week? Well, in true Morgan Hoffmann style, he gives an alternative answer. He expects to smile and play golf on a beautiful course.

After the first round, Morgan Hoffmann was tied for 71st place thanks to an even-par start. In my
opinion, this is crazy good; the guy hasn’t played competitively for over 900 days, much of that
time spent battling a degenerative disease in the wilds of South America. He looked good; even
healthy. His slight frame produces unlikely power and the short game looked sharp.

For us amateur golfers, this is the ultimate reflection of just how good these guys are. Tiger Woods shoots 1-under at the Masters after a life-threatening accident, and Morgan Hoffmann shoots level par at the RBC Heritage after fighting a life-changing illness. Let’s collectively choose to be impressed, rather than demoralized!